


everything i ever did was just another way to scream your name

by darlingsunshine



Category: RuPaul's Drag Race RPF
Genre: Craquaria - Freeform, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Making Out, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Unrequited Love, not an au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-01
Updated: 2018-07-01
Packaged: 2019-05-31 23:29:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15130091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darlingsunshine/pseuds/darlingsunshine
Summary: aquaria unexpectedly shows up at cracker's hotel room after a gig.





	everything i ever did was just another way to scream your name

**Author's Note:**

> hi! this is my first fic i've ever posted. i hope you enjoy it! :)  
> title is from south london forever by florence + the machine  
> pronouns/names change depending on situation.

It’s hot in Florida. Like, really hot, and it’s especially bad during the summer months when it rains almost every afternoon and the humidity is high enough to make the edges of any wig frizz up like strands of cotton candy. Needless to say, after her gig at Parliament House, Miz Cracker was certainly ready to get the _fuck_ out of drag and go to bed.

Katelyn told her that she was going to go get drinks with Jordan after the show, and that Vixen and Aquaria were going to join them later in the night. Cracker was fine with that. After she quit drinking, the desire to go out diminished and she developed a more extensive post-show routine where she could take as much time as she needed and be as meticulous as she wanted.

Cracker hugged Katelyn goodbye, told her she’d see her later, and returned to the hotel room to begin the de-dragging process. Long auburn locks were discarded to reveal short, mousy brown ones. Padding was removed, hot pink garments fell to the floor. With every swipe of a cloth, Miz Cracker slowly turned back into Max. Then came a shower, exfoliating every part of his body with a rich coffee scrub. Followed by a face mask to hopefully return some moisture to the skin that takes a swabbing with 99% alcohol nearly every day, and finally a rub down with his favorite fruity smelling lotion.

Max threw on a pair of shorts and hopped into the bed. He wriggled under the comforter and fell back onto the pillow. He turned the TV on to a house hunting show, and began to doze off. He thought he could hear a knock at the door, but dismissed it as a noise coming from the TV. The sound happened again, and Max decided he couldn’t ignore it any longer. He huffed as he walked towards the door, his bare feet padding along the hotel carpet. He didn’t even check the peephole, assuming Katelyn was the only one who would want to see him so late.

It wasn’t Katelyn. Standing before him was Aquaria, out of drag and looking distressed. Max was dumbfounded. Sure, things between the two of them were perfectly fine after they left Drag Race, but he was confused as to why Aquaria would come to him with a problem because, like, isn’t that what Jordan is for?

“Hey Aqua, what’s up?” Max tried to hide the fact that he had been snoozing, but couldn’t help rubbing his eyes, and he was sure that the bedhead wasn’t doing him any favors.

Aquaria pushed past him and entered the room. _The fuck?_ Max thought to himself.

“Aren’t you supposed to be with Katelyn, Jordan, and Vixen right now?” The smaller man wondered out loud.

No response from Aquaria. Usually she had a thousand opinions and a mouth that ran a mile a minute, so the silence was deafening. After flipping on the light switch, Max glanced over to see Aquaria sat on his bed. He went and sat beside her, throwing an arm around her shoulder and squeezing, quickly remembering that he was shirtless due to the warm skin-to-skin contact facilitated by Aquaria’s tank top.

“Max, I…” Aquaria sputtered out.

 _Oh_. _Well shit._ Max inhaled sharply. His inner monologue was going wild. The two seldom referred to each other by their boy names, and when they did it meant something serious.

“Giovanni... “ he tested out, trying to gauge a reaction from the other queen. “Are you okay? Gio?”

No response. Max trailed his hand around Gio’s shoulder’s to the crook of his arm, gripping it gently.

Gio’s voice came through, a soft melancholy noise.

“It’s you. It has always been you.”

Max suddenly felt like his hand was on fire. There was a pit in his stomach. _What the fuck does that mean._

“Giovanni, I know I’m impeccably smart, but I cannot read your mind. Please talk to me.” Max tried to lighten the mood, cracking a smile.

“I’m in love with you, Max.”

To say that Max couldn’t breathe would be a complete understatement. He remembered when Katelyn introduced the two of them. She was so excited for her two favorite people to finally meet, and was beaming the entire time. They kissed each other’s cheeks and Max felt the ghost of Gio’s lips lingering on his face all day. He remembered watching Aquaria perform in clubs, going to tip her with a dollar and feeling the world stop when she would reach for the money and their hands grazed. And cheering. He always cheered the loudest for her. He remembered his breath hitching when Aquaria painted his face for the twins photoshoot. They were so close he could’ve counted each of her eyelashes. He remembered he could feel the air coming from Aquaria’s slightly parted mouth. He remembered wanting to _lean in_ and…

“Max?”

Max lifted his gaze to see Gio with tears in his eyes.

“Giovanni I… I don’t know what to say.” Max’s mind raced and the words were not formulating in his head.

“It’s okay! I um… I can go! It’s fine, just forget about this. See you tomorrow sis!” Gio was trying, and failing to keep composure. He made his way out of Max’s grasp and started towards the door, wiping his eyes with the back of his hands.

“Stop it, come back here.” Max’s voice got more gentle as he reached for the other man’s hand to pull him back to his original position on the bed.

“Listen Gio, I’m just confused. We were friends, then we weren’t, now we are again, and you’re telling me you’re in love with me? Will you lay it all out for me so I understand?” The older man tried to sort out his own feelings between the words that came out of his mouth. He knew that in the early days of their friendship the constant burning in his chest when Aquaria was around _could’ve_ been a crush, but he also knew that he repressed almost every feeling he’s had in his life.

“I don’t think that I ever hated you.” Gio took a moment of pause before answering. “From the second Kate introduced us I thought you were like, the cutest.” His painted-on eyebrows unfurrowed, and a slight smile appeared as he looked up at Max, who returned the soft expression despite still being a little shellshocked. “But, I was young...er than I am now, and I figured I would’ve only been hurt if I acted on my feelings. I didn’t think you would want to be with me.”

Max put his hand on Gio’s knee, as a comfort and to stop his incessant bouncing.

“So, once the copycat drama came up, I used it as a chance to avoid you. I never cared. I just wanted my feelings for you to go away. I resented you because I liked you.”

A memory flooded Max’s mind. In the middle of the few months of purgatory between friendship and radio silence from the other queen, there was a night at one of the NYC clubs that they both frequented. Cracker had just finished her number, and Aquaria was the first one to come talk to her afterwards. Aquaria, not performing that night, was out of drag and fairly intoxicated. She hung onto Cracker for the rest of the night, arms around her shoulders, constantly telling her how pretty she was and how glad she was that they were such great friends. At some point, someone called Cracker’s name and she sharply turned her head in that direction to see what they wanted. Simultaneously, the impact of a kiss hit her cheek from Aquaria’s direction. Cracker turned back quickly to see a sheepish look on Aquaria’s face and just brushed it off as part of her drunk affection spree. What if Cracker hadn’t turned her head?

Max came to a realization. _He tried to kiss me that night._

“Now that we’re close again, the feelings are back. And I value you too much to lose you again. So here we are.” Gio sighed, letting his gaze fall to the bright white hotel comforter.

Max was still. He recalled moments in their recent history that reflected those in the beginning. The electricity from the first time they touched after months of no contact, greeting each other in the drag race workroom with an all-too-familiar hug and double cheek kiss. How his head and his heart ached through the fighting, the yelling, and the making up. The tight hugs and the tears, behind the scenes filming the show. He remembered flipping over Aquaria’s note after he got eliminated, seeing that she scribbled a drawing of the two of them with a heart around it that said “forever!!!!” Getting irritated when interviewers addressed the drama. Professing “I love you, Aquaria. I do love you a lot.” on a stage in front of hundreds of people. Blushing when fans responded with chants telling them to kiss. Tonight, feeling Aquaria’s arm pulling her closer during the meet and greet and relaxing into her touch.

Max knew words wouldn’t suffice explaining the emotions bubbling up. He reached a hand around the side of Gio’s neck and gently pulled him closer, planting a soft kiss on his cheek and letting his lips stay there for a moment. He pulled back with a smile. Gio leaned in and kissed Max’s cheek in return, his fingertips grazing the older man’s jaw. Max exhaled and bowed his head again, kissing Gio’s other cheek and this time purposely aiming his lips closer to the other man’s mouth. Gio responded by going to place a kiss on Max’s other cheek, continuing the back and forth game they had begun. He tilted his head so that his kiss would hit the corner of Max’s mouth, but still be enough on his cheek so that the move wasn’t overtly risky. Max inhaled sharply as feelings of want manifested in his body.

Their eyes met, hands still cupped around each other’s faces. Max smiled and nodded slowly, to give permission.

Gio moved in yet again, but this time his lips met Max’s lips. It started slowly, but with each passing second, every teenage love story cliche of fireworks and butterflies seemed to ring true. There was a certain form of catharsis that happened for both of them in this kiss. Max held Gio’s neck a bit tighter, keeping his head steady as their mouths moved together.

Max took initiative and swiped his tongue over Gio’s bottom lip, causing the younger man to moan into his mouth. Gio made a motion to lie down on his back. Not wanting to end the kiss, he pulled Max on top of him so that the shorter man was straddling his hips as their movements got quicker and more lustful.

Gio ran his hands over the shorter man’s bare chest, feeling the skin that was hot to the touch.

“God, you’re so fucking hot. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve imagined this.” Gio broke the kiss to beam up at Max, his voice low and gravelly and his eyes crinkling due to the grin on his face. Max smiled back, threading a hand through Gio’s soft black hair.

They continued to kiss, but broke apart every once in a while to stare in each other’s eyes, both still registering the situation at hand.

After what seemed like seconds but was more realistically about an hour of kissing and gazing, the familiar sound of a key card in the hotel room door led to the smaller man practically jumping off of Gio’s lap and onto the floor next to the bed. Gio stood up and took his place awkwardly in the middle of the room. Both of them tried to make it look like they weren’t just making out, but their hair was suspiciously ruffled and even for drag queens, their lips were suspiciously tinted red and swollen.

“Hey Katelyn! How was your night?” Max chirped once the blonde woman stepped through the door, crossing his arms against his chest to hopefully deflect the fact that he wasn’t wearing a shirt.

“Hi Cracker! It was good to see everyone again. Oh, hey Aqua! We wondered where you were. I texted you a bunch of times.” Katelyn had a confused look on her face.

“We… We were tired and just decided to hang out. You know, just being gal pals! We watched a movie and talked. That’s all.” Gio responded unconvincingly.

“Yup! We had so much fun. Now that Aqua and I are good judies again. Anyways, we had better get to bed. Kate and I have an early flight tomorrow.” Max addressed both of them before walking Gio to the door.

“It was nice to chat, girl. We should hang out again sometime soon. I’ll text you later!” Gio said with a wink and blew a kiss, knowing Katelyn could only hear them and not see them. Max smiled and gave the taller man a quick hug.

He shut the door and turned around to find Katelyn giving him a look.

“Yeah, you didn’t believe a word of that did you?” Max chuckled, rubbing his hand across the back of his neck.

“Nope. I’m going to go get in the shower and then afterwards I expect a bedtime story about how you and Aquaria finally made a breakthrough with the romantic tension that has been looming above your heads for years. Love you!” Katelyn laughed and made her way to the bathroom.

Max got back in bed and pulled out his phone. He opened the text thread labeled “Aquaria” with the dancing bunny girls emoji, and began to type.

_I think I’m in love with you too. I’m sorry it took me this long to realize it._

_We could’ve been making out instead of fighting lol :P_

_Get a good night’s sleep. Text me in the morning. xoxo._

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



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